


Show

by phoenixnz



Series: The Chronicles of Martha and Jonathan [20]
Category: Smallville
Genre: F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-16
Updated: 2017-11-16
Packaged: 2019-02-03 06:03:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,744
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12742452
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixnz/pseuds/phoenixnz
Summary: Clark is playing the lead in his grade's end-of-year show and Lana Lang is playing opposite him. Martha and Nell clash once again.





	Show

“Mom?”

Martha paused and looked down, holding onto the top of the stepladder. She’d been in the middle of cleaning the top shelf of the pantry when Clark came in.

“What is it, sweetie?”

Clark held out a slip of paper. She stepped down and looked at the paper. It was a notice from the Elementary school. They were holding an end of year show and were looking for parents to volunteer. 

“School play?” she asked. 

Clark grimaced. He was eight, but would be nine in a month.

“I don’t want to be in the play, Mom.”

“Honey, it’s just the third grade play.”

“But I’ll have to wear a stupid costume and they’ll make fun of me. They always do.”

Martha nodded. Her son was rather shy and didn’t like standing out. She often wondered whether that was partially their fault, since they’d been a little over-protective. The last thing they had wanted was for someone to see that Clark was not like other kids. They didn’t need the details of Clark’s adoption put under scrutiny.

“What’s the play, honey?”

“Sleeping Beauty.” Clark screwed up his nose. “The Prince has to kiss the girl. What if she has cooties?”

Martha stifled a laugh, her hand over her mouth. Clark had yo-yoed from having a little crush on Lana one minute to hating her the next. It probably hadn’t helped that he only ever saw her at school. 

She had always thought Nell was being a little over-protective of her niece by refusing to let her visit the farm. Lewis and Laura had lived a mile from the farm and had visited a few times with baby Lana, mostly to buy produce, but at least they had visited. Nell had moved into their house after they’d died in the meteor shower knowing she couldn’t uproot Lana from the only home she’d ever known. Still, her attitude was a little strange. 

“So who’s playing the prince?” she asked her son.

He made a face then blushed hotly. 

“And who’s playing Sleeping Beauty?” Martha asked, as if she couldn’t guess.

“Lana. Mom, I don’t want her to play Sleeping Beauty. She makes me feel icky.”

Despite his protests and his embarrassment at having to play the lead role in the play, Martha was proud of her son. Maybe they couldn’t let him play sports with the other kids, but they could at least let him take part in the school’s end-of-year show. 

She decided to volunteer to help with the sets and costume design. The teacher in charge of the show called a meeting at the school one afternoon, shortly after classes had finished for the day. Martha was running late. The truck had been giving them trouble lately but they couldn’t afford to get new parts for it. They had no farmhands since Earl Jenkins had taken a job at the Luthorcorp plant and Jonathan was basically running the farm single-handedly. He’d given Clark a few chores to do – mostly simple things that he could trust Clark to take on. 

As she walked into the school auditorium, she overheard Nell.

“Oh, I doubt Martha will show. She’s always soooo busy on that farm. She hardly even bothers to come to the book club meetings.”

Well, that was a little unfair, Martha thought, considering Nell was the one who rarely attended the book club meetings. It was also rather rude of the woman to assume that Martha was too busy to help out, especially when it was something her son was involved in. 

“I’m here,” she called out. “I’m so sorry I’m late. Our truck refused to start.”

Nell shot her a look and sniffed. The teacher just smiled.

“That’s all right, Martha. We were only just getting started. Thank you for coming. I’m so happy you could make it.”

“Well, how could I not,” she replied with a smile. “Since my son is the lead in his grade’s show.”

Nell again made a face. “Well, actually, my niece is the lead. Clark is just the prince.”

Martha refrained from commenting. The teacher also, wisely, didn’t comment. They began discussing the jobs each parent could do. Martha immediately volunteered to make the costumes, since she was a good seamstress, having sewed her husband’s and her son’s clothing for years.

“Great, all the costumes will be in plaid,” Nell remarked sourly. 

“Nell, are you really here to help or just to make sarcastic comments?” Mrs Finlay asked. She turned and smiled at Martha. “I know you’ll do a wonderful job,” she added. “I have some fabric and some patterns you could use.”

“Thank you,” Martha told the teacher. 

Later that night, after Clark had gone to bed, she discussed the situation with Jonathan. He shrugged. “I thought you and Nell had buried the hatchet?”

She shook her head. “I thought so too but she seems to have a bee in her bonnet about something.”

She could still remember the times they would walk into Nell’s flower shop and the way she would greet them with some caustic remark. She wondered if the other woman was still jealous over the fact that Jonathan had married someone else. 

Yet from what she’d heard, Nell had been dating up a storm. She appeared to be seeing a lot more of Lionel Luthor. The man had lost his wife two years earlier but that hadn’t stopped Nell. Not that Martha felt any sympathy for a man who was known to be fairly ruthless in business and in his personal life. She had heard rumours, long before she had left Metropolis, that Lionel had only married Lillian because she had come from a moneyed background. 

She had no answers as to why Nell had suddenly turned hostile once again. She decided to just ignore it as the preparations for the show went on.

Rehearsals were another matter. Lana would get irritated every time Clark fluffed his lines. Not that he had many. He would also often trip and stumble as he moved in to kiss her. She would glare at him, playing with the chain around her neck. There was a strange green stone attached to the chain which appeared to become brighter whenever Clark was near. Martha dismissed it as her imagination. 

She had a talk with Jonathan, who took their son out to his little loft to talk, ‘man-to-man’. They’d bought a couch and chairs for the living room and instead of giving the old couch to Goodwill, Jonathan had installed it in the loft, along with an old desk. He’d made a set of bookshelves so Clark could read or do his homework. It was his own little fortress and he loved it. 

It was also a place where father and son would share ‘guy stuff’ as they called it. Martha would sometimes ask her son what they found to talk about up there but he would shrug and refuse to give details. Jonathan, of course, would laugh and tell her it was like her with her book club or her coffee mornings. 

“In other words, gossip,” she’d accused. He’d responded with a withering look. Men, he proclaimed almost pompously, did not gossip. They shot the breeze, talked about football and other manly things. “Gossip,” she repeated.

She had no idea what they talked about in the loft that night, but afterwards, Clark appeared to be a little more confident. 

Finally, the day of the show arrived. Martha had received praise for the costumes she had made. Nell had been put out when she saw that none of the costumes were actually plaid but she still screwed up her nose in derision, making another caustic remark. 

This time, Jonathan overheard it. They’d been standing in the foyer of the auditorium, drinking the punch the older children had made for the parents when he’d heard Nell’s comments. Before Martha could stop him, he went over to the brunette. 

“Just what is your problem, Nell?”

She stared at him. “I don’t have a problem, Jonathan. Perhaps it’s your wife who has the problem.”

“I heard what you said, and I don’t appreciate you insulting my wife. Martha worked hard on those costumes and I happen to think she did a great job. Don’t you, Mrs Finlay?” he asked, turning to the teacher. 

“Absolutely,” the teacher said, glaring at Nell. 

“Well, that’s just great, isn’t it?” Nell snapped. “Saint Martha to the rescue again,” she added before turning and flouncing off.

Martha understood now why Nell acted the way she did. She was jealous. She’d always been jealous, but now it was worse than ever. To her, it probably looked like they had the perfect life. A good marriage and a wonderful son. If she only knew, Martha thought. 

Maybe it was difficult for Nell, raising Lana alone, but she had no idea what it was like to raise a child who was as special as Clark. Martha wouldn’t give up her son for anything, even if his strange abilities made her worry ten times as much as a mother would with a normal child. It was clear that Nell felt sometimes burdened by what she had taken on.

There was no doubt in Martha’s mind that Nell loved her niece and would never abandon her, but it was obvious there were times when she wanted time to herself. Martha was well aware that dating was a lot harder when someone was a single parent. She had friends who were in that situation and they found it difficult meeting others. She could sympathise with the other woman in that respect. That didn’t mean, however, that Nell understood anything at all about their own family life. 

The show started again and they all took their seats. Clark’s grade was next. She watched proudly as her son performed, fighting the wicked witch and kissing the princess without flinching from her ‘cooties’. 

When the show was over, Clark came running out, still in his costume. 

“Mom, Dad, did you see me? Did you see me?”

“We saw you, son,” Jonathan replied, holding up the camera. He’d been recording the whole thing. 

“You were wonderful, sweetie. I think you made a very handsome prince.”

Lana came out with Nell and looked shyly at Clark. She wasn’t able to wear the necklace with her costume. The older woman glared at them and practically dragged her niece away, leaving them to congratulate Clark on a job well done.


End file.
